74
●
(CIVIL WAR—ART.) Simplot, Alexander.
Group of our Prisoners taken at
Fort Donelson.
Pencil drawing, 7
1
/
2
x 9
1
/
2
inches, signed “Simplot,” with caption and
second signature on verso, along with faint diagram of a fort; 2 vertical folds.
[Fort Donelson, TN, February 1862]
[600/900]
After days of fighting, the Confederates surrendered Fort Donelson to General Grant on 16
February 1862, with thousands of prisoners taken into Union custody. This sketch of the
ragged Confederate prisoners was apparently done by Simplot for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated
Newspaper, but was not published during the war. It was used as a source for an engraving in
Leslie’s 1895 “The American Soldier in the Civil War,” where it was attributed to artist
Henri Lovie.
75
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(CIVIL WAR—ART.) [Simplot, Alexander.]
Gun Boat Carondolet Passing
Rebel Batteries at Island No. 10.
Pencil drawing, 4
1
/
4
x 9
1
/
4
inches, with pencil caption
on verso; minor soiling, crease in upper left corner.
[New Madrid, MO], March [4 April] 1862
[600/900]
Island Number 10 was an important Confederate fortification in the midst of a sharp bend in
the Mississippi. The ironclad Carondolet was the first Union vessel to pass it, which soon led
to the garrison’s surrender.
WITH
—the page of Harper’s Weekly featuring the engraving of this
sketch, 26 April 1862, which also provides the attribution of Simplot as the artist.
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